Although all of them have married, three have started families, and Martin moved to Maine, they still talk on a weekly basis and get together as often as their schedules allow.

"We were all really close in high school - we all sat at the same table at prom," Benson said. "Actually, the first time I ever skipped school was with the three of them."

In addition to scrapbooking and shopping, the friends share a love of the ABC show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," in which a design team headed by TV personality Ty Pennington chooses a family in need and builds them a new house in just under a week.

The show ends with "the reveal," when the family returns and reacts to seeing their completely furnished new home.

"We all watch the show every week," said Benson, who lives in Danbury with husband Chris and their children, Bryanna, 6, and Bryce, 3.

Martin, who lives in the tiny town of Wells, Maine, watches the show with her sons, Clayton, 9, and Christian, 7.

"I'm the recording secretary for Well's Town Hall," Martin said in a phone call, "and Ty Pennington showed up at the town selectmen's meeting in late September to ask for permission to build there.

"They filmed the whole (meeting), and when I saw a volunteer sign-up list, I wanted to do it."

Telling her friends "was like a chain reaction," Martin said. "I called Meredith first and told her, and then she called Darlene, and then we said we have to call Pam. They were so excited."

"I was excited when she told me," said Steadman, who lives in Brookfield with husband Oscar and daughters Mia, 6, and Olivia, 2. "But initially I wasn't sure if I would be able to get away.

But her friends "all said, 'What are you talking about? You have to do it!" Steadman recalls.

"We all jumped at the chance to be a part of it," Benson said.

She, Tharington and Steadman drove to Wells on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 2, to help build a new Katahdin Cedar log home for lobsterman Doug Goodale and his family.

Goodale lost his arm in an accident in 1997 while working alone at sea and has found it a struggle to do his job and maintain the family's small, one-level home since then.

The four women arrived at the log home building site on Goodale's property on the fifth day of construction, given blue shirts, and told what they could do to help.

"Structurally the house was already up. By the time we got there most of the work was going on inside the house," said Tharington, who lives in Brookfield with husband, James.

In comparison to what they are used to seeing on TV, the scene "was sort of organized chaos," Steadman said. In addition to heavy equipment, tools, tents and television crews, approximately 200 or more people - including new volunteers - worked on the house each day.

"It's so different when you see it from that perspective," she said. "They actually use a lot of local workers to do most of the building, which I never realized, and you don't see Ty and the rest of the crew the whole time, the way you see it on the show."

The women did, however, get to meet the members of the design team, who autographed their shirts and hard hats. Martin also met Pennington and had her picture taken with him.

"They were all really nice, and Katie said that Ty was a great guy," Benson said.

The women did a variety of tasks, from carrying kitchen cabinets and building logs, to cleaning up leftover piles of wood and scraps so the landscaping could proceed, to serving food and drinks to other workers.

"When we went home (to Katie Martin's house) Sunday night, I was tired and so sore," Steadman said. "I mean, it took three or four people to carry one of those logs. But the next day we were out there doing it again, and it was great. It made it that much more fun to be doing it together."

Knowing they were helping a family in need made the experience even better for the four friends.

And, Benson said, "It was amazing to see all of these people, many who had never met one another before, working together as a team. There was nobody complaining. Everyone was happy to be there."

"It's amazing how fast they work. They don't stop for the entire week - they have people working on that house 24 hours a day," Benson said.

Volunteers were given food and drinks round the clock, and crew members often walked around talking to people.

"We met Paulie and Eduardo (from the show) and they were really nice guys," Benson said.

When the women left at the end of Monday, "the house was just beautiful. It was enormous," Benson added.

Because they needed to return to their own families, they didn't get to see the reveal, which was scheduled for the following day.

All four women will have their television sets tuned in to "Extreme Makeover" Nov. 20 to see what they experienced and what they missed.

Although they won't be able to watch it together, they've planned a group Christmas shopping trip for the end of next month in Maine.